Dima Ismail Rashid al-Wawi was born on November 20, 2003, in the town of Halhul, north of Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank. Her family earns its income mostly from farming a small piece of land located on the outskirts of the town.
Halhul has been a constant target for Israeli army raids, as its residents have protested against the confiscation of much of their land to support the expansion of the illegal Jewish settlement of Karmei Tzur. Since 2000, the Israeli military has confiscated about 1,500 dunums (Approximately 371 acres) of land belonging to Halhul, which is subject to routine closures imposed by the Israeli army.
Dima has been witness to much of the violence and injustice meted out against her town, although her family tried to protect her and her siblings. On February 9, 2016, Dima was ‘arrested’ by an armed, illegal Jewish settler who claimed that the 12-year-old girl was trying to stab him. After weeks of interrogation by the Israeli army, a military court sentenced her to four and a half months in prison.
Throughout her interrogation, Dima kept telling Israeli officers: ‘Ma’miltish ish’, ‘I didn’t do anything.’
Below is an excerpt from Dima’s story published in Ramzy Baroud’s latest volume, THESE CHAINS WILL BE BROKEN: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press).
The audiobook edition of the book is set to be released by the same publisher later this year.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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